Breakthrough Listen

I'm excited to be part of the Breakthrough Listen initiative:
the most comprehensive search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) ever undertaken.
We are using the largest telescopes in the world to systematically search for artificial
signals of unknown origin. I am working on the digital signal processing systems and
data analysis pipelines, and running the science program on the Parkes telescope in Australia.

Detecting the dark ages

I also work on the Large Aperture Experiment to Detect the Dark Ages, or
LEDA.
We've built a 256-antenna array along with a powerful GPU-based correlator in Owen's Valley, California.
We're looking for highly-redshifted Hydrogen in the early Universe, and will image the entire sky at
radio wavelengths.

A LEDA all-sky image at 47 MHz (data reduced by Stephen Bourke).

Searching for Fast Radio Bursts

Here at Swinburne University, we are busy upgrading the Molonglo telescope, to convert it
into a Fast Radio Burst detection and localization machine
(UTMOST).
Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are
rare and enigmatic astrophyical events that last only a few milliseconds. They appear to originate
from billions of light years away; how and why they occur remains an outstanding mystery that
we are hoping to solve.

Radio astronomy instrumentation

I work mainly on digital instrumentation: designing and implementing signal processing systems
for radio telescopes. I work a lot with FPGAs
and I'm an active part of the
CASPER collaboration.
I've helped build instruments at the Parkes (HIPSR), Owen's Valley (LEDA),
Medicina (BEST-2), and Tidbinbilla (TAMS) observatories.

HIPSR

HIPSR is a spectrometer and
pulsar machine for the Parkes 21cm multibeam receiver.

LEDA

LEDA is a low-frequency array of 256 antennas in Owen's Valley, California.

DPAD

D-PAD was a 16-element aperture array that I built as part of my PhD project.

Even more? I play guitar, love music and drink too much coffee. I've slowly been exploring the USA,
ticking off the states as I go. I enjoy tinkering with web and UI design (thank you bootstrap),
speak a little Japanese, and am outrageously good at Mariokart 64.